A physician or other caregiver may use an order entry system to prescribe drug-related items (“items”) to a patient. In a typical system, a user may select an item from a list of available items. The selected item may be inappropriate for one or more reasons. For example, the item may present a danger to the patient in view of a condition that affects the patient (such as a drug allergy). Alternatively, or in addition, the item may be inappropriate because it conflicts with another drug-related item that has already been prescribed to the patient. Still other factors may contribute to the inappropriateness of an item.
An order entry system may address the above problem by presenting a pop-up alert after the physician selects the item. The pop-up alert informs the physician of a safety-related concern regarding the selected item. The physician can remove the pop-up alert by clicking on it or by deactivating it in some other manner. In some cases, the order entry system may identify multiple safety-related concerns of varying degrees of seriousness. In this case, the order entry system may present multiple such pop-up alerts. The physician may act on these pop-up alerts in sequential fashion in the manner described above. If a drug-related item is deemed a poor choice, the physician may decide to select another item. If this alternative item is likewise problematic, the physician may be confronted with another series of pop-up alerts.
The physician may find the above-described prescription process cumbersome and time-consuming. As a result, the physician may become frustrated with the process, leading to a phenomenon that may be referred to as “alert fatigue.” The physician may address the tedium of responding to pop-up alerts by quickly de-activating pop-up alerts in rote fashion, or by adjusting the threshold of the order-entry system so that not so many pop-up alerts are presented. In either case, the physician runs the risk of overlooking a pop-up alert which notifies the physician of a serious safety-related issue.
The shortcomings identified above are not limited to the field of patient care. Other order entry systems may present similar challenges.